During my four years as a teacher student I have identified a lack within pupils’ conceptual understanding of the English language. Teachers in grade 4-6 often work with weekly vocabulary tests regardless of their inadequacy. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to contribute with a development project that elaborates pupils’ conceptual understanding of English words. This project focuses on the pedagogical method of concept definition maps. During the study’s intervention the pupils discuss English concepts by translating them, defining them, providing facts about them and constructing example sentences. The study will therefore focus on the pupils’ perspectives and their experiences. Furthermore, the study will answer questions about how concept definition maps can promote pupils’ understanding of concepts in English, and what differences pupils experience when they work with vocabulary test versus concept definition maps. The questions are answered by way of two qualitative methods, classroom observations and interviews with pupils. The purpose of the observations is to answer the first question of the study by examining the pupils’ work with the concept definition maps, and the interviews are aimed to answer the second question. Furthermore, the study’s theory is based on Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural perspective that supposes that learning is a social and cultural process. The study also focuses on the concepts of appropriation, interaction and contextualization. The result confirms that the vocabulary tests in today’s schools need a form of development and continued planning. The concept definition maps were considered useful because the pupils were able the develop both their oral and written language skills. The result also showed that the pupils made their own definitions of certain words by linking them to their past experiences and everyday life. The pupils also supported each other which contributed to deepened conceptual understanding.

Denna studie syftar till att undersöka hur naturvetenskapliga begreppskort kan hjälpa elever att appropriera nya begrepp inom ämnet biologi. I studien deltog tolv elever i årskurs åtta i en skola i södra Sverige. De medverkande eleverna delades in i två grupper där den ena gruppen fick tillgång till begreppskort under arbetets gång medan den andra gruppen fick vara referensgrupp utan begreppskort. Data analyserades med metodkombinationen kvalitativ textanalys tillsammans med en grundläggande statistisk analys.Undersökningsresultat visade en signifikant skillnad vad gäller antalet approprierade naturvetenskapliga begrepp mellan elevgrupperna där elevgruppen som använde begreppskort var den grupp som approprierat flest naturvetenskapliga begrepp. Denna förhållandevis lilla studie kan ses som ett avstamp till fler och större studier gällande naturvetenskapliga begreppskorts signifikanta roll i lärandet av naturvetenskapliga begrepp.

Syftet med denna undersökning är att jämföra två olika sätt att lära in begrepp. Elevgruppen som deltar i undersökningen delas in i två grupper och får arbeta med antingen instuderingsfrågor eller begreppskort. Eleverna som deltar i undersökningen går i nionde klass och alla över 15 år. Med hjälp av enkäter som genomförs före och efter arbetet med ekologiska begrepp samlas data in för analys av resultaten. Slutsatsen blir, att det är svårt att fastställa vilket sätt att lära in begrepp som ger bäst resultat. I undersökningen kan vi även se att det finns en del ekologiska begrepp som eleverna har svårare att lära in, oberoende av sättet de arbetat med begreppen på. Bland de begrepp som eleverna hade svårt att lära in finns kretslopp och näringspyramid. Svårigheter med att lära in ekologiska begrepp kan kanske förklaras av elevernas vardagsföreställningar eller alternativa föreställningar.

This study aims to investigate to what extent the implementation of concept cards in Religious and Geography education promotes a conversation that contributes to the understanding of subject-specific concepts.  The aim theory is the socio-cultural perspective and the theoretical concepts are: collaborative learning and collaborative support. It is a qualitative method that has been implemented that consists of interviews, observations, and tests. Two different schools are involved in this study and six lessons are observed. There are also a total of 8 pupils who are interviewed twice, which corresponds to a total of 16 interviews in both schools. To investigate the purpose of the study there will be a couple of questions that must be answered before answering the main question: ‘’How do pupils expiernce working with subject-specific concepts in Religious and Geography education?’’, ‘’How do pupils experience working with concept cards in Religious and Geography education?’’, ‘’How do the conversations with concept cards work based on the observations in Religious and Geography education?’’ and ‘’How is the pupils’ understanding of concepts change through the course of the intervention in Religious and Geography education?’’.  After these questions have been answered, it will be possible to also answer the main question of the study: ‘’To what extent do concept card discussions in Religious and Geography education promote pupils' understanding of subject-specific concepts?’’   The results of this study show that all pupils describe a similar experience of the teaching, that developing conceptual understanding does not permeate the teaching. Pupils learn concepts by reading concept definitions in the textbooks or listening to classmates' or teachers' definitions. In this way, the pupils may not get the opportunity to develop their understanding of concepts, which is also made visible in the pre-tests. The results of the study point to, with the help of the pupils' interviews, the test results, and what has been noticed during the observations, that the majority of the pupils are given the opportunity to be able to develop their understanding of concepts to a great extent by conversing in groups. The results of the study indicate that concept card discussions promote that many pupils’ develop a developed understanding of subject-specific concepts in Religious and Geography education.

Researchers argue that students need to understand the language and the key concepts of each discipline to understand the academic content. The purpose of this study is to develop, analyze and evaluate a development project in civics. Therefore, the study answer following questions:  How do subject-specific concepts take place during the lessons according to the students? In what way can concept definition maps encourage students to talk about subject -specific concepts? How do students experience the work with concept definition maps? Two qualitative methods are used to answer the questions, both interviews and classroom observations. The interviews focus on how the students describe their experience with subject-specific concepts during civics lessons but also how they experience the work with concept definition maps which was implemented during the intervention. The observations onthe other hand show in what way the concept definition maps encourage students to talk about subject-specific concepts. The theoretical framework of the study is based on the sociocultural perspective and other theories that stress the importance of encouraging students to generate their own meaning of terms but also how the language develops in interaction with others.The result shows that the students often rely on the definition they get from their teacher orthe textbook but there is no room for students to explore the concepts themselves. All the students felt that the concept definition maps had good impact on their understanding of the subject-specific concepts. The results also showed that the there was a positive interdependence during the intervention where the students learned from each other’s prior knowledge and paths of thinking.